Active materials are capable of converting free energy into mechanical work to produce
autonomous motion, and exhibit striking collective dynamics that biology relies on for …

Inspired by biology, great progress has been made in creating artificial molecular motors.
However, the dream of harnessing proteins–the building blocks selected by nature–to …

Myosins are a superfamily of ATP-driven actin-dependent molecular motors that are
responsible for diverse functions from muscle contraction to cell division. The resolution …

Hydrodynamic theories effectively describe many-body systems out of equilibrium in terms of
a few macroscopic parameters. However, such parameters are difficult to determine from …

For certain nanotechnological applications of the contractile proteins actin and myosin, eg.,
in biosensing and network-based biocomputation, it would be desirable to temporarily …

The emerging field of synthetic developmental biology proposes bottom-up approaches to
examine the contribution of each cellular process to complex morphogenesis. However, the …

Over the last 25 years, extensive progress has been made in developing a range of
nanotechnological applications where cytoskeletal filaments and molecular motors are key …

By patterning activity in space, one can control active turbulence. To show this, we use Doi's
hydrodynamic equations of a semidilute solution of active rods. A linear stability analysis …

Cytoplasmic streaming with extremely high velocity (∼ 70 μm s− 1) occurs in cells of the
characean algae (Chara). Because cytoplasmic streaming is caused by myosin XI, it has …

In active materials, uncoordinated internal stresses lead to emergent long-range flows. An
understanding of how the behavior of active materials depends on mesoscopic …